The San Francisco Film Society announces the appointment of Jennifer Chaiken and Todd Traina to its board of directors as it continues to expand its slate of media education programs and filmmaker services, and prepares to present an expanded fall season of festivals including Cinema by the Bay, French Cinema Now, Taiwan Film Days, the San Francisco International Animation Festival and New Italian Cinema.

The new SFFS board members bring a wealth of experience from their professional work in film production in support of the San Francisco Film Society’s mission to embrace the artistry and innovation of the world’s most imaginative storytellers and to educate, entertain and enrich a wide and diverse range of audiences.

The Film Society currently presents more than 200 days of programs and events each year, concentrated in four core areas: Celebrating Internationalism and Cross-Cultural Exchange; Educating and Inspiring Bay Area Youth; Showcasing Bay Area Film Culture; and Exploring New Digital Media.

“We are immensely pleased to add the considerable talents and expertise of Jennifer Chaiken and Todd Traina to our board as the Film Society continues to expand,” said Pat McBaine, president of the Film Society’s board of directors. “They bring the fresh perspective of youth and filmmaker expertise to the SFFS board and will certainly contribute greatly to our increasing efforts to bring visionary and progressive programming to Bay Area audiences and valuable services to filmmakers nationwide.”

Jennifer Chaiken, a producer of both documentary and narrative films, won an Emmy for best documentary for her work on My Flesh and Blood, following the film’s Sundance wins for both the audience and best director awards. My Flesh and Blood was short-listed for Academy Award consideration after its theatrical release by Strand Releasing and broadcast as an HBO special on America Undercover. Previously, Chaiken produced Thomas Bezucha’s first feature, Big Eden, winner of over 15 audience awards. She also produced the documentary Naked States which premiered on HBO’s America Undercover series. Chaiken was the executive producer for the HBO follow-up, Positively Naked, which was also short-listed for Academy Award consideration. Her other producing credits include Restaurant, starring Adrien Brody, Simon Baker and Lauryn Hill; I Love You, Don’t Touch Me!, a Sundance premiere, distributed by MGM; and Family Name, winner of the Freedom of Expression Award at Sundance and nominated for an Emmy for outstanding historical programming after its broadcast on PBS’s acclaimed POV series.  

?In 2007, Chaiken founded 72 Productions. With the backing of a private equity fund dedicated to the development of feature films, 72 Productions has an eclectic slate in development and preproduction including The Perfect Hour to be directed by Christopher Hampton, a narrative inspired by the award-winning Darfur documentary The Devil Came on Horseback and Deadlocke, a coming-of-age teen story based on the Simon & Shuster novel Venomous, that 72 is also adapting into a comic book with Dark Horse Comics. 72 Productions has offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Chaiken has served on grant committees for the Independent Feature Project and the San Francisco Film Society and as a juror for Frameline. She also serves on the board of a private foundation that supports the arts, gay and lesbian civil rights, women’s reproductive rights, health, education, literacy and Jewish community organizations.  Chaiken is a graduate of Yale University and resides in San Francisco.

Todd Traina, producer and founder of Red Rover Films, has produced unique and varied independent films of all different genres. In 2007 he was named among the top ten producers to watch by Daily Variety. Traina recently wrapped the drama Morning starring Jeanne Tripplehorn, Laura Linney, Elliott Gould, Jason Ritter and Leland Orser. My Suicide, produced in partnership with Interscope and the youth media nonprofit Regenerate, won a Crystal Bear at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival and made its U.S. premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin. In 2008 Traina served as executive producer on the martial arts thriller Blood & Bone starring Michael Jai White and Julian Sands; the thriller Night Train starring Danny Glover, Steve Zahn and Leelee Sobieski; Stag Night starring Kip Pardue, Breckin Meyer and Vinessa Shaw; and Blackwater Transit, starring Laurence Fishburne, Karl Urban and Stephen Dorff. Traina executive-produced the 2007 Sundance audience award-winning drama Grace Is Gone, starring John Cusack and Timber Falls, a horror thriller directed by Tony Giglio. In 2006 he produced the Rhino Films feature What We Do Is Secret, starring Shane West, Bijou Phillips and Tina Majorino, which premiered at the Los Angeles International Film Festival, and the highly acclaimed Punk’s Not Dead, an in-depth feature-length documentary based on the punk rock movement featuring interviews with over 100 bands.

Prior to forming Red Rover Films Traina was president of Lampedusa Films, where he developed and produced Stanley’s Gig, starring William Sanderson, Marla Gibbs and Faye Dunaway, which won several film festival awards and premiered on the Starz/Encore Network. Traina also coproduced Skeleton Woman starring Daphne Rubin-Vega and Serena Scott-Thomas and executive-produced Paul Feig’s debut feature Life Sold Separately. He began his career with producer Douglas Cramer at NBC Productions working on the Danielle Steel movies of the week Secrets, Heartbeat and Palomino. As a partner at BigRock Pictures he developed the comedy Woodstuck, which was sold to John Davis at 20th Century Fox. 

Traina is in development on the comedy The Woody, which he cowrote with Frank Dietz. They also partnered on the comedy script Without a Hitch. Traina has acquired the rights to the novel Morning Spy, Evening Spy that will be adapted for the screen and directed by George Hickenlooper.

Traina has served on the Vision of Hope Advisory Board for over ten years. In the past he has served as an associate on the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation board, as an advisor for Regenerate and worked closely with the Nick Traina Foundation, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the EcoMom Alliance. Traina was born and raised in San Francisco and is a graduate of Connecticut College.

San Francisco Film Society is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to celebrating film and the moving image in all its glorious forms. SFFS year-round programs and events are concentrated in four core areas: Celebrating Internationalism, Inspiring Bay Area Youth, Showcasing Bay Area Film Culture and Exploring New Digital Media. The Film Society shows the best of world cinema year-round on its SFFS Screen at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas; presents the longest-running film festival in the Americas, the SF International (April 22–May 6, 2010); publishes a daily online magazine, SF360.org, featuring broad-ranging news and features on Bay Area film and media; annually reaches more than 8,000 students ages 6–18 with its acclaimed media literacy programs; and provides crucial support to the Bay Area filmmaking community through SFFS Filmmaker Services including FilmHouse Residencies, Fiscal Sponsorship, the SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants, the Herbert Family Filmmaking Grants, the Hearst Screening Grant, the Djerassi/SFFS Screenwriting Fellowship, SFFS Film Arts Forums and professional-level filmmaker classes.

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